AUSTRALIA
The Blue Mountains, which are really a series of plateaux dissected by deep canyons, lie about 60 kilometres west of Sydney. They rise steeply from the coastal plain just past Penrith and the Nepean River about 50 kilometres from the CBD of Sydney.
The slopes are cloaked with dense scrub and thick forests choke the river valleys. Further inland, the hills become flat-topped plateaux and the valleys are flanked by vertical cliffs - the landscape is transformed into a maze of cliffs and gorges.
The bluish appearance of the mountains when viewed from a distance is due to the continual evaporation of oil droplets from the leaves of eucalyptus(gum) trees. The sun's rays are refracted by the haze of droplets and give the light a bluish tinge and the mountains their name.
They presented a barrier to the early extension of the colony until the year 1813 when Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson discovered a way across by following a ridge top between the Grose and Cox Rivers. This ridge is still used as a route for the railway and highway which run side by side with occasional crossings of each other. It is along this ridge and the spurs running off it that development has taken place.
Administered by the Blue Mountains City Council, the settled areas are regarded as three regions - Lower, Mid and Upper Mountains. The narrowest part of the watershed is the Mid Mountains and here is found the village of Woodford in which the owner of this home page lives.
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This page was last updated on JUNE 10, 2000